HOW IMPORTANT IS ACCOUNTABILITY
Some people believe we are the sum of our experiences; I think we're the sum of our decisions.
The definition of accountability is: "the fact or condition of being accountable, responsibility".
So for every decision we make in our lives, we are only really responsible for ourselves.
Accountability is the X factor that determines whether you are successful or not at pretty much anything in your life.
You either; accept the accountability for your decisions and make tremendous progress, or you can pass off that accountability, behave like a child, and regress or remain in the same place.
Who else are you accountable to/ for?
You might be accountable to your spouse, close friends, or other members of your family. Ultimately you are accountable for your actions, but when you develop a certain level of closeness to those around you, you also become accountable for each other.
As parents, we are also accountable for our children and how they act and behave. Your accountability to them might decrease as they get older. The amount of overgrown adolescence in adult bodies is these days; you might be accountable for them their whole lives.
As parents, we are also accountable to ensure that our children's lives are full of love, and their basic needs are met.
When holding yourself accountable isn't enough.
For most people, just holding yourself accountable will not help you get to your goal.
Maybe you want to lose weight, but holding yourself accountable not to eat shit food all the time he's not enough?
Perhaps you feel like crap because you're not sleeping enough, and holding yourself accountable to stop watching Netflix all night is not working for you?
You might want to exercise more, but you can't get off your arse and move a little more throughout the day?
How to be more accountable.
The first step in taking accountability is acknowledging the problem.
Then it would help if you took responsibility for that problem. We love to point fingers and blame others, but it's all on us at the end of the day.
Then stop complaining, whinging and bitching and procrastinating.
Ask yourself questions instead of making excuses or telling yourself stories. Ask questions that start with "what" or "how", not "why", "when", or "who".
What and how questions focus on action. What can I do? How can I improve?
After that, you need to take action!
When and how to seek accountability help
If you know you can't just hold yourself accountable, you need to find other ways. People that successfully lose weight and keep it off are more than likely accountable to a coach or part of an online group or community of people trying to achieve the same goal.
You might want to have your accountability with your social media followers. I know this worked for me recently when I tried to do 50 pull-ups and 100 push-ups a day. I hit my goal 90% of the time for the month as intended. But once that month finished, and I was no longer accountable, I failed to get the reps every day. Check it out here.
So accountability for you could be as simple as telling someone else your goal and having them check in with you daily, weekly or monthly.
When I don't track my macros using the precision nutrition hand portion method, I know that my nutrition goes off the rails a little. It's a simple as having this on the fridgee each week to keep myself in check.
Some of my online nutrition clients find that having a shared photo album with me of their meals helps them make better food choices more consistently.
Better still, get yourself a coach. Even the coaches have coaches.
If you're struggling to get your nutrition in order and would like to lose a few kilos, please book a free 15-minute consultation here to see if I can help.